Published 2:55 am, Tuesday, September 1, 2009

"I would say what I think people have probably been concluding -- it doesn't look at all likely they will be going to school at Wright," Allan Taylor said. "Whether there are positions for them at other technical schools, that's something as a board member, I just don't know."

It was the most definitive statement about Wright Tech's future, which has been tied up in the ongoing battle at the state capitol to craft a new two-year budget, even as many of the school's teachers have retired or sought other jobs.

In December, the board voted to shutter Wright for two years to help address the growing state deficit. The school has suffered from low attendance and requires significant upgrades.

"If there needed to be a significant cut in the budget of the technical school system, the least harmful way "¦ would be to suspend operations at Wright. That remains the board's position," Taylor said.

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell did not embrace the closure in her initial February budget, instead urging Wright to move ahead with a planned partnership with Norwalk Community College that could serve as a model for a state middle college system.

But the middle college system proposal never went anywhere -- legislative Democrats said it lacked details -- and the governor closed Wright in an updated May budget. Democrats, including House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, who visited Wright in June, pledged to save the facility in any budget deal reached with Rell.

But no budget agreement is in sight, and, according to the state Department of Education, the teaching staff has dwindled from 26 to 10.

Although the Department of Education has not confirmed that the 10 remaining teachers are being moved to other schools, Taylor said that is the plan. He said that early retirement incentives offered by lawmakers to help shrink government in the face of the deficit hit the technical high schools hard, and there are vacancies to fill.

"With the constraints on personnel, we just can't keep so dramatically an underenrolled school open," Taylor said.

Ninety-nine students are set to return to Wright as sophomores, juniors and seniors, and there is a class of 30 incoming freshmen. The school's capacity is around 650.

The past few weeks have seen conflicting and confusing messages from state government over Wright's fate and who would decide whether it would reopen Aug. 27.

Two weeks ago, Rell budget director Robert Genuario said the administration was aware of the strain the uncertainty was causing and planned to make a decision in about a week.

About that same time, Tom Murphy, a Department of Education spokesman, said letters were being prepared for faculty and students about Wright Tech.

But then Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele, of Stamford, who has said he wants to save Wright Tech, said the school was still part of budget talks.

Then late last week, Genuario said the decision was up to the Board of Education, and Murphy on Monday said the situation remained in a "holding pattern."

Rell, during a visit to Wilton on Tuesday, said that "it is the decision of the state Department of Education. "¦ It truly is their decision."

But critics of the move said Rell as governor bears responsibility.

"We were thinking Rell and the legislators -- she was supposed to have the final word," said Joann Dispirito, whose son Anthony would be a sophomore studying culinary arts at Wright. "We've heard so many things we don't know what's happening."

Donovan said Rell as governor can keep Wright open.

"She proposed to close it, and now she's saying someone else is closing it," Donovan said. "We are clear we want to keep it open. If we had an ally in the governor to keep it open, I'm sure in our budget agreement we would."

State Rep. Livvy Floren, R-Greenwich, who represents part of Stamford and participated in area legislators' efforts to save Wright, said Rell is listening to the Board of Education.

"I don't think she's that culpable," Floren said. "It's a confluence of awful things and no money to help us."

Taylor said the board's hope is to use the next two years to make Wright successful.

"We'll try to come up with something that will allow a school to be run there and succeed," he said. "We said in our resolution in December and still believe the Stamford area needs the kind of educational programs the technical school system can provide."

Staff writer Brian Lockhart can be reached at brian.lockhart@scni.com or 203-655-7476.